Way back in 2007, young anime fan Scamp spotted this image on an anime website. It caught my eye and I went to look it up, only to discover it hadn’t aired yet. The preview plot description though talked about a fantasy series focused on more down-to-earth mercantilism and low-key travel than swords and sorcery. That combined with the cute girl in the promo material captured my interest, and I kept tabs on it until it aired. I became a big Horo-sorry, Holo guy, and now wanted to know everything there was about other upcoming anime for the spring 2008 anime season. This led me to anime blogs d ..read more

If I write “part 1” in the title of this post, it not only encourages my loyal readerbase to come back for the second part, but it also forces me to write a second post. My genius is truly staggering. Delicious in Dungeon Episodes watched: 2 Fine. This is good. It’s well animated for starters. The animation does an excellent job at selling the emotions and reactions of the characters. It’s goofy and cartoony, but in a strangely low-key way that keeps the cosy feel without being too loud. I was worried about its world feeling bland due to it being the most RPG video-game-inspired world premise ..read more

These are the looks you get if you haven’t watched Migi and Dali yet. Around November I found myself wondering if this year was truly one of the weakest years for anime ever. It didn’t help that 2022 was maybe the best year for anime ever, so this year suffered by comparison. Then I realised I had fallen behind on a ton of anime, so jumped back in and caught up on everything I had meant to watch but forgot or fallen behind on. Once I reached Christmas and could finally pull a complete list together, suddenly the year looked a whole lot better. Turns out watching anime is a good way to discover ..read more

They’re making another Madoka Magica sequel movie. In the year of our lord Madoka 2024. Honestly? Fine, I’ll take it. Yeah Magia Rising didn’t work for me, but it failed because the writing and story were too busy and unfocused. The visual style and themes still worked. It showed to me that another Madoka anime can still be special if done right. What’s that? An early season preview? Yes! It’s Day with The Cart Driver’s oh so famous Anime Season Preview, this time for the winter 2024 season. It’s early because I’m travelling for Christmas and won’t have a good place to bitch about how anime go ..read more

The level to which Space Dandy ended up being forgotten by time remains shocking to me. It launched with such fanfare. Here was the director of Cowboy Bebop launching a new anime with a wide array of directorial talents that would run simultaneously abroad as it did in Japan. Yet it just kind of came and went. I thought it was incredible and loved the variety of stories it told every week, but had I just bought into the hype at the time? Maybe the historical view that it was bogged down in juvenile humour and pointless stories is the real truth? It’s been a decade since I saw it, so it’s time ..read more

I enjoy how pleasingly round Frieren’s head is. It’s one of those details that makes you nod your head in quiet satisfaction. Also noticed the slight change in title from “first impressions” to “early impressions”? For when your first impressions take too long. Apothecary Diaries Episodes watched: 3 It’s…ok? I like the main character and how much of a gremlin she is. She’s a lot of fun and pulls great facial expressions. It looks very good too, with clearly a lot of love and effort put into the visuals. I’m not entirely sold on the writing though. It feels like it doesn’t fully respect its au ..read more

Ron Kamonohasi used the geass in the first episode of that show, so obviously I’m going to watch all of it. Guys, I think this deranged detective might be the cart driver!?! Anyways, first impressions! There’s a lot of anime this season, and not all of them are garbage! In fact, some of them might even be good? One of them does that the geass after all, which as we all know is the truest sign of quality out there. The Family Circumstances of the Irregular Witch Episodes watched: 2 Now don’t get me wrong. Big titty giant hat dark skinned witch lady is Peak Character Design. That is not up for ..read more

Ah shit, it’s already September? I haven’t written a post in almost 3 months? Well at least I got this post out on the very first day of September, before new anime started airing. What’s that? They already started airing anime in August? Motherfucker, that’s illegal! That’s banned under the Geneva Convention! Shit, I’ve got to get everything together, lest I break my 15 year streak of never missing a season preview. Good thing this season is probably bad and has only like one or two things worth watching, just like this recent summer season, right? *looks over fall season* Oh. There’s a lot o ..read more

My computer blew up over a week ago. Hard drive fried, I was left to wander the streets in search of substanance. I would blow on windows then draw pictures of cartoon ladies stepping on me in a desperate attempt to recreate my desire for new anime. I just got my repaired computer back, and I had a ton of work to do. What? Like in a real life job? No, I had to watch a bunch of new anime and report back on whether they’re good or not! Silly you! (I say this, I’ve watched all of four anime, but it doesn’t seem to be a particularly packed season anyway) (Also I still haven’t finished anime from l ..read more

Hi everyone. Let’s keep this short: I have a new anime blog. It’s called Day with the Cart Driver. Two reasons why I’m doing this. One is The Cart Driver is…old. Old enough that it is starting to have legacy problems. The RSS feed stopped working over a year ago and I haven’t been able to fix it. The categories list is so bloated I don’t know how to sort it anymore and stopped being useful to anyone. The design is dated and was custom-built in the first place so fixing it is impossible for me. The second is it has proven difficult to get back into writing about anime regularly. I can drum up ..read more